Blogmas Day Twelve: My Christmas Photo Set up!

This is a post I’ve been looking forward to writing! Since I’ve had soooooo many questions about my photo set up for this festive season, I thought I’d share a post all about it. It’s the season of giving after all!

My theme doesn’t change too much, apart from when it’s the festive season. Apart from this time of the year, my photos are usually pink and white. Which, you will know if you are a regular reader of my blog or if you follow me on Instagram. My post about how I improved my photography went down a treat so I’m hoping this will too!

By the way, if you want me to do a post on general blog props, let me know!

Last year, I had a white and silver theme but this year, my aim is ‘winter wonderland’.

I take all my photos on my dressing table and that acts as my white base. This is great for me as I use fake snow to create texture and add to the ‘winter wonderland’ vibe I’m going for this year. The snow I picked up from Wilko last year and I also used this in my photos last year. It was only £3 and you get a huge bag. It’s so easy to reuse over and over again so it’s definitely worth the money.

Then the background – my trusty ol’ fairy lights.

These were just £10 for a box from Amazon! I’d like to think that these fairy lights are how people can recognise my photos. They’ve been apart of my photo set up for 18 months nearly! I don’t think I can ever remove them completely from my photos now! With these though, it’s all about the angle but it doesn’t always work out how you want! I learnt this this the hard way.

So, the white background is literally just some foam board I picked up from Hobby Craft over a year ago. I do need to purchase another because this one is pretty scraggy now but it does the job. You can use card for this though. I just lean the foam board against my mirror.

Now for the props!

Most of the props I’m using this year, I picked up from The Range. This is one of my favourite stores and their Christmas section is amazing. It’s all so cheap and affordable too. So, we have the glitter poinsettia, the huge glitter pine branch with pinecone at the bottom (which you don’t really see, oopsie) and then this stick with white balls on it. What are they called? I have no idea but they looked cool so I picked them up too! Then for the odd splash of red – the frosted berries that I didn’t use to decorate the rest of my house, have made an appearance in my photos! Those four, it came to just under £10 so it’s really cheap and the quality of the props are so good.

I’m using some of the props from last year too, which include the silver glitter reindeer (stag) which I picked up from a garden centre, obviously the fake snow as I said futher up and then the silver pine cones. The pine cones, again are from a garden centre but I know that places like Asda, B&M and Wilko’s sell them!

Other props include a Christmas tree tray – again, from last year – that was £3.99 at a garden centre, copper wire/tinsel with stars on. This was from B&M last year but I have seen them in stores again this year. I think they come in around £1.99 for a couple metres. Don’t hold me to this though! I do also have some little silver trees that make an appearance every now and again. They were from Amazon last year too. These were so difficult to get hold of! Then there’s also the little tea light holder (which I literally just have for display) which again, is from a garden centre.

I’m sorry about the lack of links too, most of these just don’t seem to be on a website or are from a garden centre but hopefully it gives you inspiration!

You just have to know what works well for you.

I definitely feel comfortable taking product shots and flatlays, even more so at this time of the year. My festive photos have so much more detail than my usual ones because of all the different textures, layers and props I use. I can’t really pull off lifestyle sort of photos – especially not fashion ones! This year, I wanted my Blogmas photos to be a winter wonderland full of silver, white, glitters and a hint of green. I didn’t plan for this to be the theme but it just came together and this is the end result! It definitely makes a difference on how you lay your props in your shots too.

For example, in a couple photos,

I tried the stag on the right behind my glitter poinsettia and whilst it looked good, you couldn’t really see much of the stag. It is pretty huge to be fair! So, after taking 200 or so photos, I moved it to the left, angled slightly – behind the glittery pine branch but just in front of my fairy lights. Again, you can’t see it really well but it just creates this gorgeous silvery/glitter blur in the background.

I hope this post has been a good read and hopefully given someone inspiration!

What are your favourite props to use? Do you change your theme up for the most wonderful time of the year? Or do you just go with how you’re feeling? Let me know in the comments below!